[1112] Of all hail to Environmental Defense

When KKR, a coal power plants operator and the Environmental Defense are mentioned in one article in the same paragraph, one would expect a report on vicious political skirmish. Quite to the contrary and to my surprise, the three groups are working together!

The buzz first came up a couple hours ago but it is only just now that I accepted it. I was like running into a think see-through glass door — it takes a moment to realize what is going on after a pang in the face. This might signal the greatest cooperation between the greens and the grays yet:

Early Monday, after several weeks of marathon negotiations that brought together both environmentalists and Wall Street bankers, TXU announced that its board of directors had approved the bid from Kohlberg Kravis and Texas Pacific for about $45 billion, which would be the largest buyout in history.

[…]

The deal was noteworthy not just for its size, but for the confluence of business decisions and environmental concerns that drove the ultimate transaction. Because private equity firms are unregulated and historically have valued their privacy, neither Kohlberg Kravis nor Texas Pacific were eager to become an “enemy combatant” of the environmental groups, people involved in the talks said. Reducing the coal plant initiative will also free up billions of dollars in planned spending that the firms will be able to use for other projects or to help finance the transaction. [NYT, Feb 26 2007]

I have a newly found respect for the Environmental Defense! That whole lot spams I received through email, tons of snail mail I received in my mailbox and that couple of bucks I donated to them while I was at Michigan worth every single bit!

This is the crux of the deal, as far as the environment is concerned, as stated in an email I received from Environmental Defense:

As part of the sale agreement, Environmental Defense helped negotiate an aggressive environmental platform that will, among other things:

• Terminate plans for the construction of 8 of 11 coal-fired power plants TXU had hoped to build;
• Stop TXU’s plans to expand coal operations in other states;
• Endorse the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) platform, including the call for a mandatory federal cap on carbon emissions; and
• Reduce the company’s carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

Way to go!

w00t! w00t!

p/s — and Al Gore won the Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth!